Family Law
As a Boise Divorce Attorney I often deal with heart breaking issues involved in divorce, custody and domestic violence. However, as a family law lawyer, I often get to experience the joy of things like adoption. This adds balance and contrast to my family law practice.
Adoption
As I noted above adoption is usually a joyful time for a family adopting a child, but what happens when something happens to that joy? Adoption can occur for a variety of reasons. We tend to think of unwed mothers and fathers giving their children up for adoption because they are too young to raise the child and need to focus on their futures. While this is a very common situation, there are many many others as well. A child who has been placed in foster care is a candidate for adoption, as is a child from a foreign country or a grandchild who has lost their parents to a tragedy and the list goes on. The thing that all adoption has in common is that the adoptive parent becomes the child's actual parent and they have all the rights and obligations associated with being a parent.
Can You Un-Adopt a Child?
After the situation in the news this past year where a woman adopted a foreign born child and tried to return it to its country of origin because it had attachment disorder, I received several calls from individuals in similar situations. They all wanted to know if you could, "return" a child. The answer is simply no and this is because once you adopt a child you become the child's parent.
There are many reasons why the joy of adoption can fade. This is one reason why the Idaho adoption statute is the way it is. It requires a home study before a child can be placed with an unrelated individual. The law recognizes the need to make certain the new home is a safe and stable place, but it also recognizes that the individuals themselves need to be stable. Part of the home study evaluates the parents-to-be. This is important because what happens when the child has something like attachment disorder or some other disorder that makes parenting beyond difficult?
Thankfully, most adoptions don't turn out "bad" and there isn't the desire to "return" the child. Even though these situations can occur, I am still thankful to share in the joy of the adoption process with those people who are looking forward to being new parents.
If you have an adoption question or other family law issue that you would like to discuss with a Boise Family Law Attorney, give us a call (208) 472-2384 to talk to one of our attorneys.
